Caseville, Pt. I

Hey gang,

Abby and I were the first to arrive at Sleeper State Park around 6pm.

It had been a couple years since we Houghs had gone camping (probably not since the Tribe last lay siege to Jellystone back in 2023, and despite having a ridiculous amount of camping gear lying around that we've amassed since moving back to Michigan, we haven't really felt the urge to go the last few years. That changed this summer, however, when a few of us couples - the Johnsons, Colliers, Griffins, and us - decided we should strike out to Sleeper State Park in Caseville. Out of the group, we're the most devoted campers, and there's no 'dead weight' families to worry about: our biggest issue with having twelve families or whatever it was back during our Jellystone run was it was far too many people and the logistics of meals was a nightmare.

Sending pics to the others to discuss where to place tents across our sites.

Having a smaller, core group of campers made meal-planning a breeze (two families teamed up for two dinners, and we ate in town for the third), we all chipped in on the breakfasts, and lunch was on your own (at the beach.) Additionally, adventuring out to Caseville, Port Austin, or the beach didn't take hours upon hours of rallying and prepping, you could just load up quickly and go. Furthermore, this assortment of families are among the most laid-back in the group, so there was no drama to speak of and the entire weekend went by flawlessly.

Abby learns how to set up a tent. She was a bit bored without Ella there yet.

Upon packing up at the end of our stay, we all agreed that we will definitely be doing this again next summer. With the exact, same group of families.

Folks set out Wednesday after dinner, the idea being it would basically be setting up camp then checking out the sunset before doing a fire then turning in for the night. That way we'd have all day Thursday to hang out and enjoy the beach without wasting time setting up in the afternoon upon check-in. Unfortunately, the Griffins and Kris - who all had to work still - wouldn't be getting in until Thursday afternoon, so they missed out on our first beach outing. Alayna was off staying at her boyfriend's family cottage up by like Traverse City or something, so she wasn't around for any of this. That left Abby and I setting up the Houghs' crap all by our lonesome, but we managed to knock it out super fast.

So here you go, folks - the first of four installments, chronicling the Houghs' return to camping.

Behold. . .

I finished putting up the tent before anyone had shown up. Super fast this year.

When Collier booked the sites he thought they were in an L-shape, with the Johnsons behind us, but we were happy to discover that due to some scheduling issue they had placed all four of our sites in a row, with the Johnsons on one end, then the Colliers, then us, then the Griffins and their RV on the opposite end.

Kris and I have a pretty sweet setup. With Abby sharing a tent with Ella on the Johnsons' site, Kris and I had the place to ourselves.

The Colliers and Johnsons arrived around 7pm - the Johnsons were late getting on the road due to their teenager taking forever, and the Colliers stopped off for McDonald's or something on the way.

We decided to utilize the fire pit on the Colliers' site for our communal hangout area.

The two besties, setting up their lodgings for the weekend.

There is nothing more glorious than the post-setup beer, folks.

Someone converted an old school bus into a makeshift RV, right across the lane from us. They were only around that first night we were there, but I managed to get a pic of the thing before they left. Pretty bad-ass setup, honestly.

Erik and Collier, discussing canopy placement.

The setup continues.

The Colliers brought along their dog, Winnie, since it's far more chill than Samson or the Johnson's German Shepard, Raider.

Stringing up some lights over the fire pit for peak vibeness.

With headquarters dutifully established, we walked the five minutes trek down to the private campground beach.

Sunset pic with the kid.

The amount of pics these two take for their social media accounts is obscene.

Lake Huron. Probably the third-best Greak Lake.

The Colonel and Big E

The Gruesome Twosome.

Practically had the place to ourselves this evening, it was pretty awesome.

Back at camp, after the sun had finally went down (we actually barely missed the sunset, but there was still some light in the sky, as you just saw) we returned to the campsite and got a fire going.

Didn't stay up too late this evening, nobody was quite in the 'let's rage' mood.

The Colliers have this dog camping bed thing they brought along so Winnie wouldn't have to lay down on the ground and get filthy. Came in pretty this weekend for sure.

Quiet hours start around 10pm, but we managed to behave ourselves and didn't get yelled at (the first night at least.)

We turned in around midnight or so, wanting to be able to get up and hit the beach as early as possible the following morning. Stay tuned. . .

- (to be continued. . .)